


shine in the gray

by skatzaa



Series: like little girls who've discovered a soul mate [3]
Category: Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 04:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16339859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: When Cansrel tries to send Liddy away, Fire is prepared.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. I can't promise anything update wise or where it's gonna go, or even who the end pairing will be. But I hope you enjoy it!

When Cansrel tries to send Liddy away, Fire is prepared. She knows her father, knows that he won’t allow such happiness in her life for long. And she’s right.

So when Cansrel and his men come for Liddy, one summer day just after dawn, Fire plants her feet, protects Liddy’s mind with her own, and says, “No.”

That disarms Cansrel for a heartbeat, and his men falter in response. Fire steadies herself, holds one hand behind her for Liddy to grasp.

They’re in the empty courtyard and the air is cool against her skin. Fire does not have her bow but she doesn’t need it; any fight with her father will not include traditional weapons.

Cansrel recovers, drawing himself up in indignation. His blue-silver braids shines in the gray light, lovely and intricate as ever, but his magic won’t work on her, because they are the same. It won’t work on Liddy either, because she won’t allow it to.

“I employ her,” he says. Though neither of them have stated why he’s here, they don’t need to; there’s only one reason why he would track them down here, now, and besides that, Fire and her father have never needed to let their guard down in order to know what the other wants. It’s a blessing and a curse. 

Cansrel continues, “I have decided that her services are no longer needed.”

“No,” Fire says again. Liddy’s fingers tighten on her own as Cansrel finally reaches out with his mind, only to find Fire there, too. He scowls at them. “I won’t allow you.”

Once, Fire had worried that she would never have enough to give to Liddy in return for all that Liddy did for her. She still worries, but she knows this is something she can do.

Cansrel scratches against the barriers of her mind, testing. She doesn’t doubt that he could break her down in order to get to Liddy; she’s seen him utterly destroy men before with very little effort. The question is: is he willing to do such a thing to his daughter?

“Fire,” Cansrel says, voice smooth enough that even his guards–men chosen for their ability to guard their minds as well as their bodies–sway toward him. Fire tightens her hold on Liddy’s hand, just in case. Liddy crowds close to Fire’s back and presses her face into Fire’s shoulder. “Don’t be foolish. She’s only a servant girl.”

Fire pushes back against his mind and then reaches out for Brocker’s mind as well. She’s never attempted to do so many things at once, and she shakes with the effort of it. Fire touches Brocker’s mind as gently as she can manage.

“I won’t let you hurt her,” she tells Cansrel.

_Fire?_  Brocker asks.

_I need help_ , she tells him.  _Cansrel is trying to take Liddy._

Brocker sends her a wave of soothing energy, and then an instinctual impression of Archer: blond hair, a bow, quick strides through the forest.  _Archer is on his way._

Fire takes a step back, and Liddy mirrors her. Cansrel’s scowl is growing darker, so Fire takes another step. The entryway that opens out to the forest is directly behind them.

Cansrel pushes against her mind, more insistent this time. He tries attacking Liddy in new ways, from different directions, but Fire is always there first. 

“Enough of these games!” he snaps. Before she can blink he’s upon them, hands grasping Fire’s upper arms. She winces as his fingernails dig into her skin, even through the fabric of her dress. “You are acting like a child, and I expected better of you.”

Fire bares her teeth up at him. “You can’t just do anything you want,” she says. “Not while I still breathe.”

He releases one of her arms, and for a moment she fears he will make that into a promise. But then his expression changes. He reaches behind her and snags his hand in Liddy’s braid, yanking her away. Liddy cries out, trying to hold on to Fire’s hand. He pulls her around Fire and pulls hard enough to break contact between them.

It’s harder to protect Liddy with Cansrel between them, but she hardens her mind into stone and weathers his abuse.

“Fire,” Cansrel says again. He still has Liddy by the hair. Fire watches as he unhooks the knife from his belt. Liddy lets out a breath that ends as a tiny whimper. “Don’t make me do this, my darling.”

Fire’s heart is in her throat, and she can’t watch him do this, and–

“My Lord Cansrel,” says a voice from behind her. Fire whirls around and there is Archer, an arrow already nocked on his bowstring. He could be a monster, with the way his white hair reflects all the colors of the rising sun. But he is only a man. “Please release her.”

Cansrel cocks his head to one side, and she can tell that he is prodding at Archer’s mind, though his assault on her own does not abate. He smiles. 

“Are you planning on shooting me, boy?” he asks.

Archer frowns, concentrating, his eyes only half focused in the way of people unaccustomed to fighting a mental battle. “I will if I must, though I hope it will not come to that.”

Cansrel’s brow furrows, and he looks down at Liddy. He uses his grip on her hair to force her head back further, and she cries out again in pain. 

Then he looks up at Fire and she meets his gaze, because to do anything else is to tempt fate. The terrible clawing sensation abates, somewhat, and so Fire presses against his mind, not so much an attack as an attempt to hold him in place.

And then, at long last: “As you wish.” Cansrel pushes Liddy away, and Fire falls to her knees in order to catch her before she hits the ground. Liddy presses her face against Fire’s neck, shuddering, and Fire thinks to her, _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Liddy, I’m sorry._ She wraps her arms around Liddy’s body and ensures that Liddy’s mind is still protected.

“She is not welcome to stay, however,” Cansrel says, flipping his hand carelessly. He turns toward the house, and at the last moment throws over his shoulder, “I would not recommend staying long.”

He disappears into the house.

Someone touches Fire’s shoulder, and the only reason she doesn’t panic is because she knows it’s Archer, kindness bleeding out of him as always. “Come,” he says, and helps them stand. “We must go to my father’s house.”

Fire keeps her arms around Liddy, and they go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! Hardly anything happens but it's what I've got for now.

In the end, it is decided that Liddy will be sent to Roen’s castle in the south. She will be safe there, Brocker assures Fire, as not even Cansrel will tempt fate by angering the queen. 

Though it tears at her heart, Fire stays. As much as she would like to follow Liddy, to go somewhere out of Cansrel’s reach, she knows she can’t. There is more happening in the world right now that requires her help, and kingdoms don’t care for the broken heart of one girl.

There is something she still must do.

It requires quite a bit of groveling to get back in Cansrel’s good graces, and even still she can tell he does not trust her. It sets her plans back by nearly a year, and in that time Prince Brigan barely survives the most malicious attempt on his life so far.

And still, Cansrel will not trust her.

Archer nearly loses his mind from worry, and offers her comfort in the way he knows best. She accepts, because he is her friend and she cares for him, and it is nice to be cared for.

She misses Liddy fiercely, and in another life she might have loved Archer in the wake of her loss. But as much as she cares for him, she continues to love Liddy, and Archer has always been a jealous boy who grew into a jealous man. He does not wish to share Fire’s heart, and so she welcomes him into her bed but never forgets way his emotions tangle into a hot, seething mess at the mention of Liddy’s name. Or anyone that Fire admires or respects, for that matter.

Word comes from Roen that Liddy is safe and thriving, at first. Then, that she has decided to travel to King’s City. Fire hears nothing of Liddy over the next year, and it saddens her, but she knows it is for the best.

When she is sixteen, Cansrel dies.

Fire would like nothing more than to take Small, her fiddle, and her servant Donal with her and flee to somewhere that won’t constantly invoke the memory of her father’s eyes, wide and betrayed, as he laid dying. But it is a dangerous time in the Dells, and Brocker and Archer need her help, so she stays. 

A year and a half passes more quickly than she might have expected; Fire finds that her time is taken up by teaching the neighbors’ children to play instruments, and spying on those same neighbors themselves, and she counts the months by the fights she and Archer have.

Visits to Roen, few and far between they may be, are spent seeking out the faces of every person she passes, reaching out lightly for the feeling of a familiar mind, though she knows Liddy has been in King’s City for close to two years by now.

It is on one such visit that she meets the king and his brother and saves their lives. A few months later, when northern part of the Dells is just on the cusp of summer, Brigan comes to collect her. 

He isn’t kind to her, not at first, but he also is not cruel in the way he was the first time they met. The guard Brigan assigned to her become a comfort sooner than she would have thought—Mila’s gentle smile reminds Fire of Archer’s late mother, Aliss, and Musa’s steady hands make Fire think of Liddy.

As they draw closer to King’s City, Fire has to remind herself, time and again, that there’s no guarantee she’ll find Liddy. The last Fire heard of her was more than two yeas ago, at this point, with only the vague assurance that Liddy was safe, somewhere, in King’s City.

The last night before they reach the city outskirts, Fire pulls herself away from the relative anonymity of her tent and takes a walk, barefoot, through the grass. As always, her guards trail behind her quietly as she soaks up the soft stillness of the world as it sleeps. 

The softness of the world startles her, even after a week of exposure to it. She finds that she likes it. It doesn’t help her understand her father anymore, but Fire can see how a monster raised in this sort of softness might turn out differently than one raised among the sharp, gray mountains, where the brightest thing is her own body.

Fire stops. Takes in the warm presence of Musa and Margo and Neel behind her, steady and quiet in the back of her mind. She looks up to the sky and takes in the star, spilling out across the navy-blue-black sky. Tomorrow, they reach the city. She doesn’t know what to expect.

She finds the thought of it, surprisingly, to be just as exhilarating as it is frightening.


End file.
